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Contract customer: General Dynamics jobs were ‘seasonal’

By VALERIE GARMAN | The News Herald

Published: Thursday, February 27, 2014 at 08:14 PM.

Both Bodine and Kelley were hopeful the busy hiring season in Panama City Beach would help those facing layoffs.

“We are going to work with those people in the hopes of absorbing them in the workforce,” Bodine said. “It’s always disappointing to lose jobs. … We do want them to know that we’re here to assist them.”

LYNN HAVEN — Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) officials cited seasonality as the reason for laying off 730 employees at the General Dynamics Information Technology call center in Lynn Haven over the next two months.

CMS, a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is General Dynamics’ customer in opening the call center at the old Sallie Mae building last October, where about 1,500 employees were recruited to answer questions regarding enrollment in the Affordable Care Act, sometimes called Obamacare.

CMS officials wrote in an email Thursday the jobs created to support ACA enrollment were “temporary in nature.”

“Hiring under these contracts was seasonal in nature in order to support consumers shopping for health coverage from October 2013 through March 2014,” the statement said. “After open enrollment ends, call centers operated by CMS contractors that have supported our effort to enroll millions of Americans in quality, affordable health coverage will be ramping down much of their activities.”

CMS also indicated the call center will staff up and down over the year to “meet consumer demand” and “maximize operational efficiency.”

Contractors ramping down activity are required to notify the public as required under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN Act.

Under the WARN Act, an employer must provide at least a 60-day notice in advance of mass layoffs to all affected workers, the appropriate unit of local government and the state dislocated worker unit.CMS indicated General Dynamics is in the process of notifying affected employees, but officials with the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity had not received a WARN notice as of Thursday afternoon.

Lynn Haven Mayor Walter Kelley said he received a message from General Dynamics regarding the layoffs Wednesday evening.

“It was a total surprise for me,” Kelley said Thursday. “My heart goes out to all of them that got laid off. I know it’s going to have an impact on the community.”

Kelley said the city did not offer any incentives for bringing jobs to the area; he added he was not aware some of the jobs were temporary.

Kim Bodine, executive director of CareerSource Gulf Coast, said she learned some of the jobs were temporary through conversations with job seekers during the General Dynamics hiring process.

“We directed everybody who was interested in those jobs to the GDIT website,” she said. “I do know that some of the jobs that were posted were temporary.”

CareerSourceGulf Coast, formerly the Gulf Coast Workforce Center, hosted several job fairs with General Dynamics last summer, which led to the recruitment of 1,567 employees. The company hosted another job fair earlier this month in the hopes of hiring 200 additional employees, which led Bodine to believe local recruiters were not aware of any pending layoffs.

Bodine said the workforce center had no further involvement beyond the job fairs and was advised to direct job seekers to the General Dynamics website.

Both Bodine and Kelley were hopeful the busy hiring season in Panama City Beach would help those facing layoffs.

“We are going to work with those people in the hopes of absorbing them in the workforce,” Bodine said. “It’s always disappointing to lose jobs. … We do want them to know that we’re here to assist them.”